Walmart last week launched Sparky, a generative AI-powered shopping assistant integrated into its mobile app. The assistant is designed to help users compare products, summarize reviews, and surface suggestions for specific occasions or needs. Sparky is accessible through a smiley emoji icon placed between “My Items” and “Services” within the Walmart app.
The assistant responds to natural language inputs and is capable of handling a range of queries from identifying weather conditions in specific locations to suggesting gift ideas for Father’s Day. It can also retrieve recently searched items, prompt users with contextual questions, and display a limited set of related products. According to Walmart, Sparky will expand over time to include reordering, service scheduling, and support for image, audio, and video inputs.
Walmart’s Broader AI Strategy
Sparky is part of a larger shift underway at Walmart, which includes the development of proprietary AI models tuned for retail. According to CTO Hari Vasudev, using internal models allows the company to improve alignment with retail-specific data and reduce the risk of inaccurate outputs.
